Our perceptions and beliefs are shaped by both personal and collective stories. The stories offered by entertainment, science, religion, politics, and historical inheritance can become the water we swim in but don’t consciously see. Cultural mythologists understand this and are trained to recognize the patterns of these stories and their subtle (and not-so-subtle!) influences on individuals and cultures.  

Eco-psychology acknowledges that the well-being of the human individual cannot be considered apart from the well-being of the ecological world. In theory and praxis, it centers the psychological bonds between humans and their environments.

One big story we are living in the Western world is what author Charles Eisenstein calls “the story of separation”: in particular, the idea that humans are somehow separate from nature. Globally, this has contributed to economies perpetuating insatiable resource extractions that have wreaked havoc on peoples and environments alike.

This has also resulted in a demeaning of humanity and the sense of purposelessness that many feel. Lacking an understanding of humans’ fundamental, and necessary, connection to the Earth and their local ecosystems—literally their place in the world—many individuals feel psychologically ungrounded, alienated, and homeless in their own habitats. But the instinctual hunger to seek belonging—rooted in us as social animals—remains.

As a result, many turn to dangerous cultural stories in order to find tribe, with the rise of extreme religious and political affiliations being an obvious example. But most of us engage with other, more subtle, cultural stories to fill the void left by this loss of connection: the normalization of overworking-as-identity, retail therapy, and compulsive social media participation are but a few ways this can manifest.